Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Friday that will impose an annual $100,000 charge on H-1B visa purposes, dealing a probably main blow to the US tech trade, which depends closely on employees from India and China.
The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, mentioned at a Friday press briefing that “all the large corporations” had been briefed on the brand new charge.
“100-thousand {dollars} a 12 months for H-1B visas, and the entire large corporations are on board. We’ve spoken to them,” Lutnick mentioned at an Oval Workplace occasion with the US president.
“If you happen to’re going to coach any individual, you’re going to coach one of many latest graduates from one of many nice universities throughout our land. Practice Individuals. Cease bringing in individuals to take our jobs,” he mentioned.
Trump’s risk to crack down on H-1B visas has change into a significant flashpoint with the tech trade, which contributed hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to his presidential marketing campaign. The tech trade depends, greater than every other sector of the US economic system, on H-1B visa holders. Roughly two-thirds of jobs secured by means of the H-1B program are computer-related, authorities figures present, however employers additionally use the visa to usher in engineers, educators and healthcare employees.
Within the first half of 2025, Amazon had greater than 10,000 H-1B visas accepted, whereas Microsoft and Meta Platforms had greater than 5,000 approvals every. The H-1B program affords 65,000 visas yearly to employers bringing in momentary overseas employees in specialised fields, with one other 20,000 visas for employees with superior levels.
Critics of this system, together with many US know-how employees, argue that it permits corporations to suppress wages and sideline Individuals who may do the roles. Supporters, together with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, say it brings in extremely expert employees important to filling expertise gaps and preserving corporations aggressive. Musk, himself a naturalized US citizen born in South Africa, as soon as held an H-1B visa.
Including new charges “creates disincentive to draw the world’s smartest expertise to the US”, Deedy Das, companion at enterprise capital agency Menlo Ventures, wrote on X. “If the US ceases to draw one of the best expertise, it drastically reduces its capability to innovate and develop the economic system.”
The brand new charge may considerably push up prices for corporations, notably smaller tech corporations and startups.
“Both the particular person may be very worthwhile to the corporate and America, or they’ll depart and the corporate goes to rent an American,” Lutnick mentioned on the briefing. “And that’s the purpose of immigration. Rent Individuals and ensure the individuals coming in are the highest, prime individuals. Cease the nonsense.”
Immigration consultants are questioning whether or not the chief department has the authority to impose the exorbitant annual charge.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior fellow on the American Immigration Council, mentioned on Bluesky: “the president has actually zero authorized authority to impose a $100,000 charge on visas. None. Zip. Zilch. The one authority Congress has ever given the chief department right here is to cost charges to recuperate the price of processing the applying.”
Below the present system, H-1B candidates pay a small charge to enter a lottery and, if chosen, subsequent charges that may quantity to a number of thousand {dollars}, relying on the case. Practically all of the visa charges need to be paid by employers. H-1B visas are accepted for a interval of three to 6 years.
The transfer is the newest effort by the Trump administration to curb, or increase more cash from, authorized immigration. Final month, the US launched a pilot program permitting consular officers to demand bonds of as much as $15,000 for vacationer and enterprise visas from international locations with excessive overstay charges or restricted vetting knowledge. That adopted Trump’s June journey ban proscribing entry from 19 nations. Trump’s first-term administration issued a number of laws that aimed to restrict entry to H-1B visas and provides them to higher-paying employers, however the laws have been blocked in federal courtroom.
Reuters contributed reporting
About The Author
